UK banks have been given the green light by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) to begin paying shareholders dividends again, after pay-outs were halted at the start of the pandemic in March

The Court of Appeal has dismissed an attempt by Grant Thornton to overturn a record £22.6m claim for damages brought by former client AssetCo over the firm’s failure to spot a fraud at the AIM-listed company, which nearly collapsed as a result of an accounting scandal

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has announced a fast-track review of the  German financial reporting system, in response to Wirecard’s insolvency following the discovery of a €1.9bn (£1.7bn) hole in its accounts

MPs have hit out at the slow progress of audit reforms, including establishing the successor body to the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), accusing the government of dragging its feet on the changes promised in the wake of a series of high profile corporate failures and industry reviews

From crumbs to corporate collapse, the way fraudsters cook the books has changed little, although the ingredients have become far from immaterial, warns Emile Woolf

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has hit a legal stumbling block in its efforts to require Sports Direct to provide legally privileged documents as part of its probe into Grant Thornton’s auditing of the retailer’s 2016 accounts

In this month’s audit updates, Mazars wins AIG UK audit, Carillion audit probe delayed, global audit ethics overhauled, corporate governance tick box approach slammed, and independence call for local audit oversight.

The National Audit Office (NAO) has published the final draft of the new Code of Audit Practice 2020, confirming more robust narrative reporting requirements 

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has updated eight audit standards to reflect ISA (UK) 540 (Revised) – Auditing Accounting Estimates and Related Disclosures, focusing on auditor liability, fraud, going concern, joint audit and management challenge

In this month’s audit updates, Grant Thornton given £650,000 audit fine at unnamed company, FRC bans majority of non-audit services and audit investment drives down KPMG partner pay

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has issued a major revision of the ethical standard for auditors banning them from providing most non-audit services to listed company clients to reduce conflicts of interest

As the collapse of Carillion and Thomas Cook have shown, auditing goodwill and impairments can represent insurmountable problems for auditors, so maximum write-off periods for these intangibles could be the only solution, argues Emile Woolf